Joseph Burke
- Position
- Unclear from Context Unclear from Context
- Years in President's House
- circa 1793 – 1794
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- George Washington
- Biography
Little information is known about Joseph Burke’s life outside of the President’s House. However, he does appear in a Philadelphia census record in 1793, residing in Philadelphia’s North Ward.1
Joseph worked for President George Washington at the President’s House in Philadelphia. Although he only appears a few times in household records several months apart and his position is unknown, the Philadelphia census provides a clue. He is listed there as a stonecutter and based on his employment, it is possible he did a similar job at the President’s House. He appears first in September 1793 earning $7.00 for a month of work and appears again at the same wage in December 1793. He appears once more in January 1794 and disappears from the record after that point.2
- “Joseph Burke in the Pennsylvania, U.S., Septennial Census, 1779-1863,” Ancestry, accessed October 9, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2702/records/590351?tid=&pid=&queryId=1b379a14-5c6e-4c29-9ada-cf47f53d381e&_phsrc=OuO670&_phstart=successSource.
- “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793-1797 (continued),” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1906, Vol. 30, No. 1, 46, 52, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20085321.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default:d39c2855a1f340d57d7bc09397c69b81&ab_segments=&initiator=recommender&acceptTC=1; “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793-1797 (Continued)," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1906, Vol. 30, No. 2, 160, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20085330.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default:97d1606ae6dc5356bc621d4039790628&ab_segments=&initiator=recommender&acceptTC=1.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Unclear from Context